Biden campaign urges Facebook to remove Trump posts spreading ‘falsehoods’

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign is calling for Facebook to remove posts from President Trump and his eldest son that the Biden campaign says violates the social network’s policies by spreading falsehoods about voting. 

Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, wrote a letter to Facebook on Monday urging for the removal of the posts and slamming the platform as being “the nation’s foremost propagator of disinformation about the voting process.”

“No company that considers itself a force for good in democracy, and that purports to take voter suppression seriously, would allow this dangerous claptrap to spread to millions of people,” Dillon wrote, according to a copy of the letter reported by Axios Tuesday.

“Removing this video should have been the easiest of easy calls under your policies, yet it remains up today,” she added, referring to a video posted by Donald Trump Jr. last week. 

In the video, Trump Jr. claims those who oppose his father have a “plan to add millions of fraudulent ballots that can cancel your vote and can overturn the election.” 

Facebook has placed a label on the video that states “voting by mail has a long history of trustworthiness in the US and the same is predicted this year,” with a link for users to “get voting information.” 

The Biden campaign also told Facebook the president himself has “repeatedly taken to your platform” to encourage his followers who have voted by mail to show up to polling places and ask to vote again unless it’s demonstrated that their vote has been counted. The campaign said these posts “clearly violated” Facebook’s policies that prohibit “misrepresentations about voting logistics, methods, or requirements.”

The Biden campaign also cited a post from the president claiming “ballots being returned to States cannot be accurately counted.” Facebook also placed a label on the post with information about voting.

“If Facebook’s goal is to accomplish what it has publicly committed to do … the solution should have been simple: Remove Mr. Trump’s posts which violate your policies,” Dillon wrote. 

The campaign said it would continue to call out the platform’s “failures” as they occur in the remaining weeks leading up to the election. 

A Facebook spokesperson, Andy Stone, told The Hill the company will continue to apply its rules “impartially” to protect the integrity of the election and free expression, noting the company has faced criticism from both political parties over its rules.

“We’ve faced criticism from Republicans for being biased against conservatives and Democrats for not taking more steps to restrict the exact same content,” Stone told Axios. 

“We have rules in place to protect the integrity of the election and free expression, and we will continue to apply them impartially.” 

Biden’s campaign has long criticized Trump and his allies for spreading falsehoods, including baseless claims about voter fraud. Trump has spent the last few months criticizing expanded mail-in voting efforts, claiming it will lead to widespread voter fraud despite election experts saying there is not evidence to back such claims about mail ballots leading to widespread fraud.

The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.